Have you considered contacting Chord? Or at least wait until Munich next month?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chord team will come with Roon-capable DAC out of the box.
(maybe that’s me wishful thinking 
)
Listen to @joel 
The Spring level 3 is such a good DAC that I would never replace it with an alternative unless I did a carefully matched audition of the competitor. I also own an Yggdrasil (v1, waiting on the v2 upgrade queue) and a Soekris dac1541. Both very good in their own ways, but not enough to displace the Spring 3. I’ve heard some hints that maybe Yggdrasil v2 might best the Spring (I don’t do DSD), I’ll find out when my Yggdrasil gets upgraded.
The new Yggy 2 and Holo Spring level 3 would make for quite a shootout and certainly “no disappointment” as both are great DACs.
All good points and thanks for all the input.
As I said at the outset, should I stick or twist? I’m in no mad rush to change but fortunate circumstances has given me some spare cash so I thought it would be rude not to ask!
Indeed the Holo Spring is giving me the best sound I have ever had, but it is a 4 box solution in my setup and there are loads of steps in the chain to develop audio nervosa about.
.sjb
Simaudio Moon 780d will be coming out with a V2 in the next couple of months that will be Roon and MQA compatible. If you can find a V1 used, it will be upgradable.
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In addition to Cary DMS-500 I recommended above, here are two other options for you:
1 - Ayre QX-5 Twenty (MSRP of $8,950)
2 - Bricasti M1 SE with Ethernet card option (MSRP of $11,000)
No MQA on either one though (for now)
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Read the specification of the dCS Rossini DAC. I have one and it ticks all my boxes. It might be a tad expensive but bargain it down from dealer to dealer. It is after all a musical investment… AMG
If you like the Hugo get a Dave. Chord will be releasing an alternative to their Blu MK.2 scaler without a CD player if you don’t need one. If you do then you should check that out as well.
Otherwise your Spring is still very good and you’d be better of investing your money in something other than a DAC. If you’re looking into a very impactful streamer to feed the DAC then there are two very good options. The Innuos Zenith SE is a simple turn key solution. The next option is a more modular approach which you can customize based on skillset. The SOtM ultra gear which includes the sCLK-EX card is top notch. You can add a tX-USBultra between your streamer and DAC as one step. Or add a sMS-200ultra if you like the endpoint route. If you go the tX-USBultra route you can add a tX-USBexp card and have SOtM tap one of the clocks from the tX-USBultra fot the tX-USBexp. Take it a step further and you can use the other two taps on the tX-USBultra to modify your PC’s motherboard clocks. See this is very modular and the level which you’re willing to go depends on your comfort with PCs. You can also use a master clock device and a custom switch from SOtM. Those will further help your SQ.
While all that I mentioned will help you, nothing is better than good clean power. If you aren’t feeding your devices with an upgraded power source you’re limiting yourself.
A lot you can do other than trying to get better sound from upgrading a DAC. Compared to what I just mentioned a DAC upgrade will get you very little bang for your buck considering you can already upsample to DSD512.
Cheers, thanks for the detailed post.
I used a recent refurbishment to get a separate dedicated consumer unit for hifi duties (even my Naim NAP 300DR hums a bit less!).
I prefer the Holo to the Hugo.
I think all that modular stuff would do my head in!
.sjb
Buy an Astell & Kern and headphones and go lie on a beach!
According to Scott Hull over at part time audiophile (and also personally to me via private exchange), the Border Patrol DAC is the best DAC for all DACs up to the $10,000 price range.
It is a R2R / NOS DAC. Although it does not include a streamer, and does not have the XLR analog balanced outputs.
Never tried out one, but I am simply telling what Scott told me, and what his review says.
Hard to believe as their top unit is less than $2,000.
Stevie G. over at Cnet did a nice review / video on that too.
Take it for what’s worth it.
You already have an amazing sounding solution.
The ultraRendu / LPS1 into a Singxer SU into Holo Spring DAC is one of the best DSD512 setups out there.
If you just want a remote you could use a Harmony or something like that.
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“The sound of DSD512”
What is that? Frankly, the source master is what matters not the format. A good DAC should sound the same on all formats provided they are mathematically accurate representations of the original PCM master.
If upsampling or converting the original PCM file improves the sound then the DAC device almost certainly has linearity issues to begin with.
Not really. Most people find that if they upsample music to DSD high rates it sounds different. This has nothing to do with whether the DAC is functioning properly or not. Many DACs process and filter PCM and DSD differently. This can change what the end result sounds like, even if both results are “accurate”.
In the above scenario we are most likely also talking about using a 3rd party upsampler, modulator, and filter before the signal even gets to the DAC. So the upsampling does have an effect on the sound. Doesn’t mean the upsampled file isn’t being accurately converted to analog.
Try it yourself and see.
Most DACs upsample internally, except for pure NOS DACs. The Holo Spring has an optional internal upsampler, although it can be run in pure NOS, which is how I run mine. One can debate this endlessly, after all pure NOS DACs are a thing and some of us enjoy them a lot ;), but upsampling is required for delta-sigma DAC chips, and included also in most resistor array DACs I know of. Besides the Spring, I own a Schiit Yggdrasil and a Soekris dac1541, both of which use upsampling upstream of resistor arrays (high-precision instrument DAC chips on the Yggdrasil, discrete resistor ladders on the dac1541).
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Just a fact. Upsampling should not change the sound if everything is transparent and linear. Whether it is the algorithms in the software or the hardware doesn’t matter. The fact is that an original source file should sound the same whether upsampled or not if your DAC is linear and transparent - otherwise you are hearing affects of hardware or filtering algorithms.
If the DAC produces a different result with the same original file data according to the way it receives the data (the format) then one of the implementations must be less accurate. A more transparent DAC filter would be better.
The reality is that many DACs and especially NOS R-2R DACs are not linear enough and higher sample rates help with that issue by adding large amounts of out of band noise. (Noise can help with linearity by randomizing things - random noise being less audible than non-linearity in a DAC)
Again, no. ALL filters are compromises-there is no such thing as a perfect, totally transparent filter in real life - different filters sound different.
Different DACs operate differently - doesn’t mean they aren’t accurate. You are clinglng to some perfect textbook definition of accurate that doesn’t exist in reality.
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Yes a perfect DAC. I understand DACs have different designs and can sound different - analog sections especially. However, the same model perfect DAC should sound the same for the same source file unless something is wrong.
Take your Yggy - it simply truncates 24 bit audio to 20 bit. This is plainly wrong mathematically as it introduces quantization errors that would be quite audible. No wonder this DAC sounds different.